五月闇花橘に吹く風は
誰が里までか匂ひゆくらむ
誰が里までか匂ひゆくらむ
- Roma-ji
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Satsukiyami hanatachibana ni fuku kaze wa ta ga sato made ka nioiyukuramu
- English Translation
-
In the Fifth Month dark,
the wind that blows across
the orange blossoms—
to whose village, I wonder,
will it carry their sweet scent?
- Meaning
- In the darkness of the Fifth Month, the wind blowing over the mandarin orange blossoms—to whose village, I wonder, will it carry their fragrance?
- Commentary
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Book Two Summer Poems 69
On a dark night in the rainy season, the poet imagines where the wind carries the unseen fragrance of the orange blossoms. In the darkness the scent stands out all the more, and the poem leaves a lingering thought that it may reach someone's village and stir memories of a person from the past.
Since the anonymous Summer poem in the Kokinshū, "When I smell the scent of orange blossoms that await the Fifth Month, it is the scent of the sleeves of someone from long ago," the fragrance of orange blossoms has been associated with memories of the past. The next poem, 70, also treats orange blossoms, so the two stand together. The first line, "Fifth Month dark," is shared with poem 74.
First line, "Fifth Month dark," refers to the moonless nights of the rainy season.
Second line names the orange blossoms, famed for their scent.
Third line presents the wind as the bearer of fragrance.
Fourth line uses ka for a question, in concord with ramu in the final line.
Fifth line imagines, with present conjecture, the scent spreading far away.
- Author
- Ryōzen
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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